A McPeak Chat - The #1 USA Women's Player

by Rick Capone

For Release: July 18, 1998

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Holly McPeak is in her ninth season playing beach volleyball, however, 1998 has not been a good year. The United States' domestic tour, the WPVA, was not able to acquire sponsors and the tour was canceled. For McPeak and her partner, Lisa Arce, it is definitely a tough time. They have been the dominate team in the United States the last two seasons, winning four events to close out 1996 and then winning seven events in 1997. McPeak was also named the Tour MVP and Best Defensive Player for the third season in a row. But without a domestic tour and only a handful of international FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events, it is hard for the two to stay competitive with the rest of the players in the world, which is evident with their disappointing finishes at the FIVB events so far this year. It is especially hard to watch the Brazilians, who have the top three teams in the world at the moment, continue to improve. For McPeak, volleyball is an important part of her life and without a tour, without being able to play on a regular basis, this is probably the longest, most frustrating summer of her life.

The following interview with McPeak took place last season, prior to one of the WPVA tournaments and she had some interesting things to say at the time.

Question: At this stage in your beach volleyball career, what's more important to you winning or having fun?

McPeak: Well those go hand in hand as far as I am concerned, I enjoy winning. I enjoy working hard and playing great volleyball. If we play great volleyball, we can win. And if we can win, we have fun. So all those kind of blend together and make it worth our while. Lisa and I train really hard everyday and it's a reward to win. We don't compete against other teams during the week, so when we go out there in the weekends, it's our time to compete and have fun and do our best. That's why we do so well in tournaments.

Q: What is it that drives you to be so successful?

MAC: I am always setting goals, I think I am just a really driven person. From day one, I set goals and I don't exactly know why I'm like this but I was brought up and this is how I turned out to be. I am just really focused and I set goals starting in high school -- long term, short term -- those things I want to achieve and for the most part I have reached a lot of my goals. That's what I really enjoy, really seeing myself accomplish things I have written down in prior years. I really enjoy that.

Q: Along with the achieving those goals and being one of the most successful players on the tour the last few years, you're also one of the younger players on the tour. Are you looking at history and where your place will be one day?

MAC: Well, as far as history and records and all that stuff goes, I feel like I'll do my best while I playing. I'm not out here to break records or do anything like that. But if I do then that's great and I'll be a part of the beach volleyball history. But if I help people and inspire people, I think that's more important than anything to me.

Q: It's been known that you and Lisa have been friends for a long time and friends don't always make good partners. What are your thoughts about that?

MAC: Hmmm, friends don't always make good partners...it's tough to say. I don't think friends is the most important ingredient in a partnership, but I think we both respect each other. We have some common interest, we both believe in working hard. We both grew up in the same area. We went through the same type of collegiate and high school program that required dedication and a lot of hard work and winning wasn't a question, it' was something that was expected of us. We both have that background. We have different personalities but if we are both striving for the same goal, I think that's what makes a good partnership. And as a team it's not selfish and that's really important.

Q: Those things are definitely important, especially a strong work ethic.

MAC: Yeah, we're different types of people but were working at the same goal. We're working hard and giving it our all, and that's what's important.

Q: And on top of it your friends?

MAC: Yes, which makes it fun.

Q: When you picked up Lisa as a partner, was she in the top 10 at the time?

MAC: I have no idea. It wouldn't matter if she was or not to me. When I picked her up, I was looking long term and I was looking at a partner who I could really do well with for a long time. And Lisa started playing beach volleyball and training with me and she was kind of a practice player. She wasn't playing competitively or anything so she kind of learned through our school of beach volleyball. I don't know exactly what that is but she kind of learned the way I like to play beach volleyball. And she learned a lot and worked hard.

Q: She wasn't a top player was it a surprise to you to see the success and that it happened so fast?

MAC: Not to me, not to me...I expected that we would do this well. I really did. She keeps improving all the time and hopefully I do as well but we're always improving and working as a team. And you know, I'm not the reason she's winning. She's working hard and she's earning it herself. But I hope that by the type of player I am I help make her better and vice versa. I can't be the MVP unless I have a great partner and I don't look for those types of awards, but you get those type of awards and you can't be that unless you have a great partner and vice versa. The most important thing I want to be known for is making my partner better. And just playing the game of beach volleyball at the highest level possible, and that's what I enjoy.

Q: All great players have one thing in common -- when they play with other people, the other person seemingly plays better than they usually do. And that's true with you. When someone plays with you their game is brought up. Why do you think that is?

MAC: That's what I am most proud of. In great players, and I don't want to say that I'm a great player, but people like Michael Jordan makes everybody around him better, Magic Johnson makes everybody around him better...you can go out and hit the ball straight down and harder than everybody and this and that. I don't do that. But, I try and make the people around me look better. I felt like I did that indoors, I wasn't the big name setter that a lot of schools had, but you know what my teams won. And that's important to me, not all the recognition but making my team better and for some reason that's what makes me happy and that's what I enjoy. I don't know why I have that affect on people or if I even do have that affect on people. But that's what I try and do.

Q: Let's talk about your defense. You've won the WPVA's Best Defensive Player Award three times. How did you become so great defensively?

MAC: Well, it something that I really enjoy. It's probably my favorite part of the game is defense because defense wins games. It's so much fun to dig balls to me, I enjoy that. So when I am out there playing defense, I'm working as hard as I can to dig balls because that's what I take pride in. That's kind of what makes me tick. I love the straight down hit and I can live vicariously through my partner there. But I love defense and I love digging. And I think that wins games. So I can't tell you where the defense comes from, there's a lot of desire involved as far as I'm concerned. There's a lot of balls that people can get that they don't go for or don't think they can get, but they can. So I think that desire is a factor. Experience and knowing your opponent is very important as well. Athletic ability obviously comes into play as well.

Q: I read in an issue of Volleyball Magazine (1997 issue) that you had invited some Brazilian players, Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, up to the United States to practice together. Did you learn a lot from them?

MAC: First of all, I speak Portuguese. And I learn. I communicate with them. A lot of the countries don't speak to the Brazilians because they don't' speak the language. And they are the best teams in the world. They're wonderful people, I enjoy talking to them all the time. So when we went down to Rio they took us into their apartments for the week before the World Championships in Rio you know, the World Series event in February. So we stayed with them for a week, and went down and they trained with us and they showed us around, we had a great time, they're wonderful. And then on their way to Australia, they came here trained for a week and flew to Australia with us. So they kind of wanted to see what kind of a practice we went through and vice versa. Some of the things they were doing in practice were really important and things we didn't even think of. And now I incorporate a lot of into my practice. They have a lot of focus on their ball control and their passing and their setting. They serve great, there's so many things that they do well. And they have some really good coaching. I think it was important to see what these people do because we don't know. They do play year round and we don't. We play almost year round, we don't and they play all year. They play a beautiful game of volleyball. Lisa and I have a lot of respect for their and we wanted to learn from them and I think we did. Hopefully we'll take our game to that level.

Q: I know it's still a few years away, but are you aiming for the Sydney Olympics?

MAC: Well, Sydney's a long term goal but there are a lot of things that have to happen for us to get there. It's not something I am focusing on at this point, I'm focusing on playing great volleyball every weekend. Those are part of the journey to get to Sydney, but it's not an everyday focus of mine. It's a long term goal.

Q: Other than money, what is it going to take to get younger players on the beach?

MAC: Well, I grew up on the beach so I can't understand why there aren't girls out there wanting to play. There are so many incredible women athletes who play this sport in college, it seems like they literally disappear, it's like where do they go? Don't they want the opportunity to compete and make money and have fun and take their career to another level. I personally love the sport of beach volleyball, it's very different than the indoor game, but it's a new challenge. And it's a way to make a living and there are going to be so many more opportunities in the future. We need some big sponsors to come in and take our tour to the next level. And you know every year, I keep thinking ok we're gong to have this influx of young women. And it hasn't really happened yet. We'll get a couple here or there. But we really need some of the girls who are All-Americans in college and who played in the National team and who could come out on the beach a do really well. But for some reason, I think people might say it's too hard, I can't play on the beach. It just takes a little time to acclimate and get your sand legs and learn the game of beach volleyball. I think some people shy away from that challenge. So I think it takes people like myself and some of the other top players to encourage these type of people. I don't know if some people are intimidated, I just can't figure it out. But for some reason, we're not getting a large number of young girls. For the most part the top players are aging and everyone's still playing great but eventually we're going to need some new young player to step up.

Q: How about off the court, what things do you enjoy doing when you're not on the court.

MAC: It seems like from about 7:30 in the morning to 1:00, I'm doing weight training, running or volleyball. I enjoy following the stock market, that's kind of a hobby of mine. I enjoy cooking, I'm learning to cook. I love movies, reading, watching sports on TV. I like rollerblading. I like snowboarding. I like eating good food. I love sushi. I like to do a lot of things.

Q: Thanks for taking the time do this interview and good luck with the rest of the season.